How much sugar is in health drink powders? What seven Indian labels show

The seven drink powders we hand-checked, malt, chocolate and protein powders sold to be stirred into milk, print 24 to 48 g of total sugars per 100 g of powder, with a median of 45 g. In most of them, sugar supplies close to half the energy.

What the seven labels show

Only two of the seven labels we recorded give added sugar separately from total sugars. Where they do, added sugar is roughly half to two-thirds of the total. The rest is sugar the ingredients bring with them, from malt and milk solids, and it counts in total sugars all the same.

What that means in a glass

The per-100 g figure describes the powder, not the drink. At 20 g of powder to a glass, a powder at the median adds about 9 g of sugar. The milk brings its own: a full-cream milk we checked prints 5 g of milk sugar per 100 ml, about 10 g in a 200 ml glass. So a glass lands near 19 g, about half of it from the jar. Check your pack's own serving size; they differ. Per 100 g against per serving.

Why "health" is on the jar

These powders are usually fortified with vitamins and minerals, and the front of the jar leads with that. Fortification is real, and it does not change the sugars row. Read the back: sugars per 100 g, and whether sugar, malt extract or maltodextrin is among the first ingredients. What front-of-pack claims permit and why maltodextrin matters.

How LabelSaaf scores them

A drink powder is scored as the drink it makes, per 100 ml as made, not as dry powder, because a powder scored on its own figures gets the wrong answer. How much sugar per 100 g is too much lists several of these powders by category.

Common questions

Are malt drinks good for children?

They add vitamins and minerals, and at the median they add about 9 g of sugar to every glass. Whether that trade is worth it is a question of how often, and a paediatrician or dietitian is the person to ask.

Is milk sugar the same as added sugar?

No. Lactose comes with the milk; added sugar is put in by the manufacturer. Both count in total sugars, which is why a glass of plain milk is not sugar-free.

Figures on this page come from labels we have read and hand-checked. Products are described by category rather than named, and no affiliation with or endorsement by any brand is implied.

Last checked: 2026-09-25

Photograph the nutrition table on a pack and get a score out of 100, with the reason behind every point.